Doolittle Raiders honored across military services Published April 21, 2016 By Randy Martin 12th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs NAVAL AIR STATION PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The Naval Air Station Pensacola Doolittle Raiders Association commemorated the 74th anniversary of the Raid on Tokyo a couple days early this year. While the Doolittle Raid took place Apr. 18, 1942, no one, including the three Navy veterans and survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, seemed to mind the early commemoration April 15, 2016, at the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Division Hangar on NAS Pensacola. “It’s a tremendous honor to be invited here and to realize that people have not forgotten,” said Jay Carraway, 94, from Gulf Breeze, Florida. Carraway was aboard the USS Hulbert (AVD 6) an aviation destroyer/seaplane tender on Dec. 7, 1941, when he heard the command to man battle stations.| “We were waiting for breakfast and we yelled back that we don’t drill on Sundays,” Carraway said. The Hulbert wasn’t damaged, but Carraway helped man a five-inch gun, shoot down one Japanese torpedo plane and assist with the downing of another. “They were going for the bigger ships,” Carraway said. Across the harbor, Frank Emond looked up from his sheet music and saw planes with red balls on their side flying past the USS Pennsylvania where his band was preparing to perform. “I saw a line of planes and it looked like a piece fell off of one of them and the torpedo came right past the ship,” said Emond, 97, from Pensacola, Florida. Emond had been training for months and learned to recognize Japanese ships and planes from cue cards. When the bombs started falling he became a stretcher bearer for the dead and wounded. Japan had dealt a serious blow to American military power in the Pacific and the morale of all Americans. Soon afterward strategists and aviators, like U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, were working on a way to strike back. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Emond noticed strange planes on the deck of the USS Hornet. On April 18,, 1942, the Hornet launched 16 B-25 Bombers to execute the attack which has been credited with paving the way for a successful campaign in the Pacific theater. Emond, Carraway, and another Pearl Harbor survivor, Cass Phillips of Pensacola, Florida, stood together on stage with more than 500 admirers, including entertainers in 1940s era ensemble, at the Doolittle Raiders Association commemoration. Phillips said the real heroes were the Doolittle Raiders because they didn’t have to go on that mission and they did. The commander of the 479th Flying Training Group and the commodore of Training Air Wing 6 closed the formal portion of the Doolittle Raiders commemoration with a promise to continue the joint occasion beyond this second annual event, which honored Pearl Harbor survivors.